disappeared as if into the air, and there was
not a hint of his existence. Then, again, behold, and he seemed to
have dropped from the sky, and went flying about the street of the
village, of which no trace now remains, and which was not more than a
hundred paces from Dikanka. He would collect together all the Cossacks
he met; then there were songs, laughter, money in abundance, and vodka
flowed like water.... He would address the pretty girls, and give them
ribbons, earrings, strings of beads,--more than they knew what to do
with. It is true that the pretty girls rather hesitated about
accepting his presents: God knows, perhaps they had passed through
unclean hands. My grandfather's aunt, who kept a tavern at the time,
in which Basavriuk (as they called that devil-man) often had his
carouses, said that no consideration on the face of the earth would
have induced her to accept a gift from him. And then, again, how avoid
accepting? Fear seized on every one when he knit his bristly brows,
and gave a sidelong glance which might send your feet, God knows
whither: but if you accept, then the next night some fiend from the
swamp, with horns on his head, comes to call, and begins to squeeze
your neck, when there is a string of beads upon it; or bite your
finger, if there is a ring upon it; or drag you by the hair, if
ribbons are braided in it. God have mercy, then, on those who owned
such gifts! But here was the difficulty: it was impossible to get rid
of them; if you threw them into the water, the diabolical ring or
necklace would skim along the surface, and into your hand.

There was a church in the village,--St. Pantelei, if I remember
rightly. There lived there a priest, Father Athanasii of blessed
memory. Observing that Basavriuk did not come to Church, even on
Easter, he determined to reprove him, and impose penance upon him.
Well, he hardly escaped with his life. "Hark ye, pannotche!"[6] he
thundered in reply, "learn to mind your own business instead of
meddling in other people's, if you don't want that goat's throat of
yours stuck together with boiling kutya."[7] What was to be done with
this unrepentant man? Father Athanasii contented himself with
announcing that any one who should make the acquaintance of Basavriuk
would be counted a Catholic, an enemy of Christ's church, not a member
of the human race.

[6] Sir.

[7] A dish of rice or wheat flour, with honey and raisins,
which is brought to the churc